Links for May 2nd

New York Times: A Tipping Point for Gay Marriage?With the government unable to muster a legally defensible argument against gay marriage, it's amazing that the House of Representatives went ahead and hired their own private law firm to carry on the right. But it's more amazing still that the law firm dropped the case, finding the Republican majority's position impractical to defend. This looks like the beginning of the end of anti-gay discrimination. My children will almost certainly not know a world in which marriage is only for opposite-sex couples.

Salon.com: "USA! USA!" is the wrong responseI'm glad to see that others share my discomfort with some of the reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden. "In the years since 9/11, we have begun vaguely mimicking those we say we despise, sometimes celebrating bloodshed against those we see as Bad Guys just as vigorously as our enemies celebrate bloodshed against innocent Americans they (wrongly) deem as Bad Guys."

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9 thoughts on “Links for May 2nd”

RE: Taliban – C’mon, dude, even that article made it look like a hardly genuine offer. “If you stop bombing us and give us all your evidence we’ll maybe turn bin Laden over to a third country to stand trial.” The Taliban wasn’t about to surrender a thing.

RE: People outside the White House – Yeah, I was watching that on TV as people amassed outside the White House. What are the demographics for DC? Interesting that only hipsters and/or college kids were showing up. Like the president was going to come outside after he made his announcement? And WTF was up with the Gadsen flags? It was more than surreal to celebrate this like some sort of collegiate sporting championship.

What a bunch of morons. I saw a few riots in my college years, so I totally get the gawking factor. I get college kids will accept any excuse to get drunk and assemble en mass. But this? Really? In front of the White House?

Well, excuse me, but the United States of America pulled off the equivalent of a 3-point shot, just when we needed it. No bombs from 30,000 feet. No anonymous cruise missiles from the Arabian sea. Shot him inside his Pakistani fortress with a rifle. THAT was unity of intention. Who else can do that? So hell yes, U.S.A.

And no, it is not over. But given the price so far, it was a damn sweet moment. Maybe a small tribute to those who have paid the price.

There’s nothing wrong with celebrating the demise of a pitiless, implacable enemy. Was the sailor wrong to kiss the nurse in Times Square on V-J Day? Were the Munchkins wrong to celebrate the Wicked Witch of the East’s death? “And she’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead.”

Well, excuse me, but the United States of America pulled off the equivalent of a 3-point shot, just when we needed it. No bombs from 30,000 feet. No anonymous cruise missiles from the Arabian sea. Shot him inside his Pakistani fortress with a rifle. THAT was unity of intention. Who else can do that? So hell yes, U.S.A.

Yup, 10 years after the fact, two countries invaded. Thousands of U.S. soldier’s deaths. Hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. After we dropped all those bombs. After we launched all those bombs.

Know what worked? Good old fashioned intelligence and highly trained specialists. Don’t get me wrong. The people who did this job did their job and they did it well. I can respect that. Those people don’t need me chanting in the street to know they did a good job. Loss of life and collateral damage were always going to happen procuring Osama. But on the scale that we saw over the past 10 years and the sheer folly of it all? Ridiculous.

To use the 3 pointer analogy, it’s like the being down by 50 but hitting a 3 at the buzzer, then realizing the winning team gets to go home at the end of the night but you have clean the entire gymnasium. Terrorism has not been cured. We are still in two wars (3 if you count NATO and Libya).

Chanting USA smacks of this jerk who thinks Obama should have smiled when he gave his address about Osama’s death. It’s one job of many that has been completed. This isn’t a game.

In response to Will:

I don’t recall the Wicked Witch of the East attacking Kansas and I don’t recall the Munchkins chanting, “Munch-kin-land! Munch-kin-land!”

King & Spalding has been pilloried in the legal community for dropping its defense of DOMA. See our good friend Dahlia Lithwick here on why DOMA deserves a full and vigorous defense in the courts. She makes the argument better than I could hope to.